Sealing disk for milk bottles and like containers



0d. 24, 1933. w, H, WEGUEUN 1,931,595

SEALING DISK FOR MILK BOTTLES AND LIKE CONTAINERS Filed April 22, 1932 AWQ m Patented Oct. 24, 1933 UNITED STATES SEALING DISK FOR MrLK VBQTTLES AND LIKE CONTAINERS Walter Henry W'eguel in, Chorley Wood, England, assignor to Waxed-Papers Limited, London,

England, a. British company Application April 22, 1932, Serial No. 606,861, and in Great Britain May 16',- 1931 9 Claims. (01. 21551) This invention is for improvements in or relating to sealing disks for milk bottles and like containers (e. g. cream cartons). Such sealing disks are frequently provided with a tab attached thereto (usually by a wire staple) and lying proud of the upper surface, which tab may be gripped by the fingers and pulled to remove the disk from the bottle or other container. The disks are usually made of waxed cardboard and are placed in batches of some 500 in cylindrical cardboard containers, the ends of which are slightly spun over to retain the disks, and the cartridges thus formed are placed in a cylinder in the stoppering machine by which the disks are applied to the bottles. It will be appreciated that the provision of a tab lying proud of the upper surface of a disk causes a local increase in thickness and if by chance the disks are assembled in the cartridge with a number of them lying with their tabs one above the other, they are then liable to tilt across the inside of the cartridge and jam. The local increase in thickness caused by the wire staples (where such are used to attach the tab) may also contribute to this tilting.

The bottom end of the cylinder is spaced slightly above a feed table onto which the disks fall and they are pushed across the feed table to a position below a plunger (by which they are inserted into the bottles) by a thin pusher. The tabs are liable to catch on the bottom edge of the cylinder during the transfer of the disks by the pusher. Moreover, quite apart from the trouble caused by the tabs, the disks cannot be made of thin material as the gap between the feed table would then be so small that a very thin pusher which would not operate satisfactorily would have to be used.

The present invention has for its chief object to obviate the disabilities enumerated above, and provides a cardboard or like disk for milk bottles and the like which disk is provided with a tab secured to, and lying wholly above, its upper surface, and embossed with one or more projections standing up above the upper surface of the disk to an extent greater than the thickness of the tab.

This invention also includes a cartridge containing a plurality of disks as specified above, placed therein one above the other and spaced apart by the aforesaid embossed projection or projections. It will be appreciated that the forming of an embossed projection standing up from one surface of the disk entails the formation of a corresponding depression in the other surface of the disk and there is the possibility reference to the accompanying drawing,

that in the cartridge a projectionon one disk will slip into a depression in the next disk. To prevent this, it is proposed that the location of the projections shall vary as between alternate disks in the cartridge.

Two embodiments of the present invention will now be described by Way of example only with in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of part of a package of sealing disks embodying the invention; 7

Figure 2 is a plan of the uppermost, and Figure 3 a plan of the lowermost, disk shown in Figure 1; T

Figures 4 and 5 are plans of disks of a modified construction, and

Figure 6 is a section through a portion of a bottle stoppering mechanism.

Like reference numerals indicate like parts in all the figuresof the drawing.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the disks 10 are made of cardboard and are surface-coated with wax (surface waxing) but are not heated in order to dry them (dry waxing), the wax being merely applied to: the surface. The disks may-however,

- be dry-waxed if the finish given by that process is desired. Each disk has a rectangular tab 12 of cardboard or fibres secured to its upper surface by a staple 11. The disks are formed with-five raised pips 13 which lie on a pitch circle, and the height of which is greater than the thickness of the tabs 12. These pips are formed by indenting the material of the disk so that depressions 14 are formed on the lower surface of the disk. When a series of similar disksare formed in a pip, it is possible that the pips 13 on one disk may register with the depressions 14 in the disk above it. In order to prevent this, the disks are made in two series, those in one series having the pips on a large pitch circle as shown in Figure 2, and those in the other series having the pipes on a smaller circle, as shown in Figure 3. 1

The disks are packed in cardboard tubes 22 (Figure 1) containing some 50-9 disks, and the disks of one series are arranged in the tube alternately with the disks of the other series; The pips hold the disks apart and parallel toone another so that they cannot become tilted in the tube 22 by reason of the tabs 12 happening to lie one under the other and so that they can be surface-waxed without fear of the disks sticking together. It is thus unnecessary to dry-wax the disks and advantage can be taken of the superior protection offered by surface-waxing. Further,

there is no risk of ink in the upper surface of one disk being transferred on to the next above it.

It is not, however, essential that the location of the pips should diifer in adjacent disks and all the disks may have the pips arranged in an identical manner. in diameter than the depressions so that even if the pipe on one disk register with the depressions on the next disk, they will not fully enter the depressions and will still serve to separate; the disks. The alternate arrangement of two series of disks as described above is however preferable. Instead of pips, the disks may be formed with ring-like The disks are transferred from their container 22 to a magazine 16 of a stoppering machine (Figure 6), so that the lowest disk rests on a feed table 17. This disk is fed along the table 1'7 by a pusher 18 whichpushes it through a gap 19 between the magazine and the feed table to below a plunger 20 which presses it into the mouth of-a bottle 21.

If the pusher 18 is madevery thin, it will not operate satisfactorily. The pusher 18 must be thinner than the effective thickness of the disks in order that it shall not engage two disks at acatching in the lower edge of the magazine and jamming the machine or being damaged. This trouble will not occur with the disks according to the present invention since the gap 19 can be made large enough to allow the tab to pass through without being so large that two disks might pass at the same time. This is possible since the effective thickness of the disks which determines the maximum permissible gap is greater than the thickness of the material plus that of the tab which determines the minimum gap possible.

I claim:

1. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a disk, 9, tab secured to and lying above the upper surface of the disk, and a projection provided on the upper surface of the disk at a position remote from the tab and extending above that surface to an extent greater than the thickness of the tab.

This is because the pips are larger rojections 15, as shown in Figures 4 i and 5, or with any other suitable projections.

2. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a disk, a tab secured to and lying above the upper surface of the disk and a plurality of projections provided on the disk, arranged in a ring, and extending above the upper surface of the disk to an extent greater than the thickness of the tab.

3. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a disk, a tab secured to and lying above the upper surface of the disk and a ring-like projection formed in the disk adjacent its margin and extending above its upper surface to an extent greater than the thickness of the tab.

4. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a cardboard disk embossed to form at least one portion projecting above its upper surface and a tab of less thickness than the projecting portion secured to an unembossed portion of the disk to lie above the general plane of its upper surface.

5. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a cardboard disk embossed to form a raised ringlike pattern on its upper surface and a tab of less thickness than the raised pattern-portion of the disk secured to the upper surface of the disk at a place where the disk is not embossed so as to lie above that surface but below the top of the pattern-portion. v r 6. A stopper for bottles or the like comprising a cardboard disk embossed to form a raised ringlike pattern on its upper surface, a surface coating of wax applied to the disk, and a tab of less thickness than the raised pattern-portion of the disk secured to the upper surface of the disk at a place where the disk is not embossed so as to lie above that surface but below the top of the pattern-portion.

7. A stopper for bottles or the like, comprising a disk formed with a flat portion and a raised pattern located wholly on one surface of the disk, and a tab of less thickness than the height of the raised pattern secured to the disk on the said surface of the disk to lie against the flat portion thereof. v

8. A stopper for bottles or the like, comprising a disk that is mainly fiat but is formed on one surface only with a raised ring-like pattern of substantially uniform height throughout its length, and a tab of less thickness than the height of the pattern secured to the disk to lie against a fiat portion of the said surface.

9. A stopper for bottles or the like, comprising a flat disk embossed to form a raised ring-like pattern on one surface only of the disk, and a tab secured to that surface of the disk to lie against an unembossed portion of the disk.

WALTER HENRY WEGUELIN. 

